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Commentary

Too Big To Act Small: SMBs Spend Little Time And Money On Marketing

Here’s the prevailing attitude of small business owners toward marketing: Who needs it?

Half of all SMBs have no marketing plan for this year. And 86% of all owners would rather
spend their time on something else, according to Stress, Time & Growth: Factors Affecting Small Business Marketing in 2019, a study by Outbound Engine.

Worse, 54.45% are devoting 5%
or less or their annual revenue — perhaps as little as 0% — to marketing.

Come on, guys: How do you expect to grow your business? Are you among the 25% who have no idea
how?

Be advised that 25.46% are allocating from 5% to 10% on marketing this year. And of those that did so last year, 81% experienced growth, compared to 50% of the firms that budgeted
5% or less.

The study wisely notes that few small business owners are marketers — 36% would rather spend their time on operations and 28% would rather spend time helping
customers.

Still, 58.27% spend five hours or less per week on marketing, and only 5% go over 20 hours.

But they better wake up. Of those who spend the least time, 36% are unsure
how they will grow their business in 2019.

To the extent they are active in marketing, few SMB owners think email is effective.

The study shows that 39.72% say organic social
media was their most effective tool in 2018, followed by paid social posts (17%), events (13%) and traditional advertising (11.67%).

Email is deemed as effective by a measly 9.72%, although it
still beats digital advertising at 8.06%.

What’s distracting small owners? Worry — 62% are as or more stressed about their businesses than they were in 2018, and 27% are more
so.

Asked what is holding them back from achieving their goals, they answer as follows:

I don’t have enough money — 28.50%

I don’t have enough
time — 22.39%

I don’t know which marketing tactic is more effective for my business — 14.25%

I don’t have the staff I need — 11.95%

I don’t know who my customers are — 2.80%

Another 20% answer smartly that they are accomplishing their business objectives.

The study advises owners to ask
themselves these four questions, then answer them and act on the results: